Review: Kick Beat – The Rhythm’s Gonna Get You

[gameinfo title=”Game Info” game_name=”Kick Beat” developers=”Zen Studios” publishers=”Zen Studios” platforms=”Playstation 3 and PS Vita” genres=”Rhythm” release_date=”Out Now”]Kick Beat is the new rhythm fighting game by Zen Studios, they’re most known for those sweet pinball tables we all love. I know, I know. You’re probably done with rhythm games after being flooded with them for years. Kick Beat is a rhythm game you should definitely take a closer look at, because it may just hook you.

You’ll play through Kick Beat your first time as Lee and after completing Lee’s story, you’ll unlock the ability to play through as Mei. Playing through her story takes you to the exact same places and fights as Lee. Which Kick Beat even teases itself for, as in a cut scene before a boss fight you’ll see damage from the boss’ previous fight with Lee.

Kick Beat provides you with very obvious visual cues. You character is in the center of a circle of henchmen. The henchmen step forward and circle you before stepping into position to attack. On normal, the goons that are about to attack are highlighted in white, the button you need to press glows on floor, and then brightens at the time you need to press it. Easy, right? Kick Beat is smarter than that.

My favorite part about Kick Beat is that it doesn’t just change the speed at which you’re attacked or even become harsher with timing to make itself more difficult. It does all it can to screw you up. Everything from the screen moving in and out, changing angles at which you view the level during the fight, to even allowing the guys you’ve knocked out to obscure your view. It forces you to pay attention to every goon on the screen, when they stepped in, the direction they’re headed and of course, the beat of the music.

Kick Beat comes with 18 songs ready for you to get down to, but once you’re done with those you’re allowed to import your own songs and create your own levels. The Beat Your Music mode opens once you’ve completed the story once. Import your songs onto the Vita (the Vita is where you should play Kick Beat), the select Beat Your Music. You’ll then be given three parts to a track you’ve selected. You then choose which beat you want to follow by pressing triangle to beat as you listen. Once you’re done with all three parts, you can select the difficulty of the pattern that the henchmen attack in.

After all of that you select your track and get down to your music. There is another mode, Survival. I will be honest I have not been able to unlock it. As I stated before, Kick Beat is generous with the visual cues… on Normal. Each difficulty after that, a layer of the cues gets stripped away. On Hard, you get the goons being highlighted white, that’s it. So you are really forced you watch as they circle you. On Master, you’re given no cues. Have fun with that.

Kick Beat is perfect for anyone that loves to perfect levels for that better score to show off to a friend. Between the challenge, the playthroughs and the ability to make your own levels, Kick Beat is definitely worth your time.

[easyreview title=”Kick Beat Review 8/10” cat1title=”Gameplay 9/10” cat1detail=”Kick Beat goes that extra mile to give you a real challenge.” cat1rating=”9/10″ cat2title=”Replayability 8/10” cat2detail=”The Beat Your Music mode may be able to extend the life of Kick Beat just that much farther.” cat2rating=”8/10″ cat3title=”” cat3detail=”” cat3rating=”” summary=”ignore“]